Posts filed under 'Sport'
Elliptical Trainer Bicycle
ElliptiGo is a combination of a stationary elliptical trainer and a bicycle. It looks a bit unstable to me, but the official website says that it was successfully used on the grueling 129-mile Death Ride in California. What do you think — is this a useful exercise tool?
Add comment September 1, 2010
Linesmen goes flying
Corinthians right-winger Jorge Henrique took the linesman down in an attempt to get at a pass that was a bit out of reach.
Add comment August 30, 2010
Shock exit for Pardew at Southampton
The fifth manager of the season has been sacked, and we’re only at the end of August. Following Saturday’s 4-0 victory for Southampton at Bristol Rovers it was announced today that Alan Pardew, his assistant Wally Downes and goalkeeping coach Stuart Murdoch has all been “relieved of their duties with immediate effect”.
Three matches into the season this seems an extraordinary action from club chairman Cortese, who wants automatic promotion this season. It’s not been the best start of the season but 4 points from 3 matches is no disaster, especially after the last result.
The press release announcing Pardew’s dismissal stated: “We recognise that frequent changes to the football management are unlikely to assist in the winning of trophies and promotions.” The suggestion is that Cortese, who arrived at the club shortly after Pardew’s appointment, is hopeful of making a long-term appointment. On the one hand, Southampton is an extremely attractive proposition for a prospective manager – a financially stable club with a good squad, a sound infrastructure and a large fanbase. But the fact that Pardew has been sacked so early in the season might make a prospective new manager think twice before joining them.
Southampton is in a mess, one can only hope that Cortese has a miracle answer because it looks pretty gloomy for them at the moment.
Add comment August 30, 2010
Tarp Surfing
Want to surf but not near some decent water, simply call a friend, get a hold on a giant blue sheet, grab your skateboard and start surfing:
Add comment August 20, 2010
Arsenal Kits 2010/2011
A new season always means new kits, and here is Arsenal’s offer for 2010/2011:
They also have some good news that the Emirates stands are also going to be renamed – part of the “Arsenalisation” of the club, reverting back to the names used in the Highbury days: Clock End, North Bank, East Stand, and West Stand.
Add comment August 18, 2010
World Cup Service and Final
Having showed most of World Cup 2010 on the big screen we ran a shortened evening service, followed by a showing of the final on our big screen.
We started by singing a couple of songs and then moving into an update from our church football teams. From there we watched a clip from the Onside 2010, a DVD produced by BMS that looked at the Street Child World Cup. We linked into the Street World Cup by praying for a number of our young people who were leaving that week to go to Mumbai for a two week mission, working with Oasis India. I then preached a short (11 minutes) sermon using the following points as reasons the World Cup reminds us of the Christian life:
- There’s a prize to win
- There’s a team to play on
- There’s training to be done
- There’s a captain to follow
- There’s a perfect referee
Having whizzed through these points we again used the Onside DVD, this time watching a two minute clip of Kaka’s testimony. Following this we closed the service and started the coverage of the Final.
We saw over 70 people start the evening watching the final, unsurprisingly, given it’s stop-start nature due to the constant fouls and it being the night before a school day we saw numbers decrease at the end of normal play, before extra time.
The service seeemed to go well, although attendance was well down in comparison with a normal Sunday evening – a number of people didn’t want to come because it was about football, a number of others were watching the game at home with family and friends, whilst others had lost interest because England has been knocked out two weeks earlier.
What did you do, if anything, for the World Cup Final?
Add comment July 18, 2010
World Cup 2010 on the big screen
Throughout this year’s World cup we showed all the England games on one of our big screens at church. We started with England v USA which we showed in our youth cafe with over 70 people turning out, the Friday evening game against Algeria saw over 180 people, and then for the last group game against Slovenia, during the day, we had about 30 people turn out.
With all of these games it was interesting to see that we didn’t just have lots of young people, but the full range of families, and some of our older people
The game against Germany on the Sunday was our lowest attendance this was surprising, although there could be a number of reasons to explain this: as it was a Sunday afternoon people were more likely to watch it together as a family; having had to wait until the group stage was over we’d had less chance to publicise the specific timings and this then coincided with me being on holiday so we didn’t catch as many fans as we expected.
Here’s a picture of the England v USA game:
Overall I’m really glad we showed the games, we created a place for people to come together and be community, and watch the game in a high quality environment (even if we missed the first goal because of ITV HD!). A number of non-Christians enjoyed the atmosphere and non-threatening context.
Did you show any of the games, and if so how did it go for you?
1 comment July 17, 2010
Liverpool FC Kits 2010/2011
Below are the different Liverpool shirts for the 2010/2011 season. First up the home shirt, with the new sponsors Standard Chartered:
The shirt is fairly classic, with a nice neck, no collard, and the diamond colouration make a come back.
Then we have the pinstripe away shirt which in my opinion does not look, it just looks a bit cluttered, the nice white background with pinstripes doesn’t suit having a sponsor branded across it:
Last but not least we have the Third kit:
I like this third kit, although it does have a bit of a look of Chelsea’s away strip from last year which is never a good thing!
Add comment July 15, 2010
Education and schools work update
Headlines from the world of education and schools work:
- University clearing places ‘to be cut’: Thousands of students face being left without degree courses as universities are forced to slash the number of places available through the traditional clearing system.
- Government to introduce ‘school Olympics’: The coalition Government is pledging to create an annual school Olympic-style games as part of a drive to bring competitive sport back to the playground.
- Parents warned over exam binge drinking: Parents have been accused of fuelling binge drinking among their children by purchasing alcohol for end-of-exam celebrations.
- Ucas to review university admission points system: The university admissions system is to be overhauled amid fears that the practice of scoring applicants’ qualifications has become outdated, and is being wrongly used by employers to recruit graduates.
- England’s exams chief resigns over Gove’s plans: The head of England’s exams regulator has resigned. Kathleen Tattersall, chairwoman of Ofqual, said she was stepping down “with immediate effect”.
- Building Schools for the Future plans to be scrapped: Michael Gove, the education secretary, postpones plans to rebuild more than 700 schools across Conservative constituencies.
- AS-levels dropped to revive ‘deep thought’: Education secretary Michael Gove wants to limit the modularisation of A-levels and scrap AS-levels
- Tory MP spurns ‘Oxbridge types’: The new Tory MP for Harlow plans to hire an apprentice instead of getting a free ‘posh’ researcher
- Warning as quarter of schools boycott Sats: The Coalition risked a fresh clash with teachers by vowing to press ahead with Sats tests next year.
- Teachers to get new powers over troublemakers: Teachers will be handed tough powers to search pupils for alcohol, drugs and mobile phones in a Government crackdown on bad behaviour.
- Gap-year students choose jobs over jollies: School leavers are getting serious, says Christopher Middleton.
Add comment July 8, 2010
Spain v Holland
Loving the attacking line up for the World Cup Final, still not sure who to cheer for on Sunday evening.
Thought it was interesting that over at whoshouldicheerfor.com/ Holland beat Spain, so maybe I’ll have to cheer them on:
Based on the social justice issues that we’ve chosen here is the World Cup 2010 team rankings. You can also compare the teams with each other. Who are you going to cheer for?
- Ghana
- Paraguay
- Honduras
- Cote d’Ivoire
- Cameroon
- The Netherlands
- Nigeria
- Spain
- Germany
- Switzerland
- Denmark
- Slovakia
- New Zealand
- Japan
- Mexico
- Brazil
- Serbia
- France
- Argentina
- Slovenia
- Uruguay
- Algeria
- Chile
- Italy
- Australia
- Portugal
- England
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Greece
- USA
North Korea* (Not enough data available)
Add comment July 8, 2010
World’s Longest Tennis Match
I saw good chunks of this game, it was amazing:
John Isner won the longest tennis match in history by defeating Nicolas Mahut by 70-68 in a final set at Wimbledon. The competition lasted more than eleven hours spread over three days:
Picking up at 59-59 in the fifth set Thursday, the match continued on serve with no break points until the American hit a backhand passing shot to finish the contest in front of a packed crowd on Court 18.
You can watch the winning play at 20 seconds into the video.
Add comment July 2, 2010
It wasn’t a goal actually….
Satellite images of the German goal reveals why the linesman didn’t raise his flag…
Add comment June 29, 2010
World Cup 2010: worst miss!
Just the worst miss in the world. It’s quite stunning when you look at it. Gaping goal, three yards out. There is nothing Lars Lagerbeck can do about that.
With Greece losing to Argentina, Yakubu’s goal would have put them on top of South Korea and they would have been through to the Group of 16 on a more favourable goal differential.
Add comment June 23, 2010
Liverpool fixtures 2010/11
The Premier League have announced 2010/2011 fixtures, and Liverpool are going to start at home with a tough game against Arsenal. We will then take on Manchester City at Eastlands on 21st August. Here is the provisional list of fixtures:
August
14 Arsenal (H)
21 Man City (A)
28 West Brom (H)
September
11 Birmingham (A)
18 Man Utd (A)
25 Sunderland (H)
October
2 Blackpool (H)
16 Everton (A)
23 Blackburn (H)
30 Bolton (A)
November
6 Chelsea (H)
9 Wigan (A)
13 Stoke (A)
20 West Ham (H)
27 Tottenham (A)
December
4 Aston Villa (H)
11 Newcastle (A)
18 Fulham (H)
26 Blackpool (A)
28 Wolverhampton (H)
January
1 Bolton (H)
5 Blackburn (A)
15 Everton (H)
22 Wolverhampton (A)
February
2 Stoke (H)
5 Chelsea (A)
12 Wigan (H)
26 West Ham (A)
March
5 Man Utd (H)
19 Sunderland (A)
April
2 West Brom (A)
9 Man City (H)
16 Arsenal (A)
23 Birmingham (H)
30 Newcastle (H)
May
7 Fulham (A)
14 Tottenham (H)
22 Aston Villa (A)
Add comment June 17, 2010
World Cup chiefs rule out a vuvuzela ban
I was glad to read that the World Cup chiefs rule out a vuvuzela ban. The sound of the plastic horn has been likened to the drone of a thousand bees or a herd of stampeding elephants.
Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo says the noise affects player concentration, while some fans watching on television claim they cannot hear the commentary. But a World Cup spokesman insisted vuvuzelas are “ingrained in the history of South Africa” and will remain.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter also weighed into the debate and believes vuvuzelas are part and parcel of football in South Africa:
“I have always said that Africa has a different rhythm, a different sound. I don’t see banning the music traditions of fans in their own country. Would you want to see a ban on the fan traditions in your country?”
A recent survey found that the sound emitted by a vuvuzela was the equivalent to 127 decibels – louder than a drum’s 122 decibels or a referee’s whistle at 121.8 decibels.
The one thing I can say about the vuvuzelas controversy – it does make officiating more difficult. There have been a number of times players have continued running even after being caught offside because they failed to hear the referee’s whistle in the sheer volume of noise.
Add comment June 17, 2010
